Come back to this once you have perspective, Joshua. How drastically could your life have changed if you made a different choice today?

###

Joshua crawled out of their tent and thanked the night for its merciful four inches of snow. He snacked on a granola bar and watched for air traffic. There had been a helicopter weaving through the jagged peaks of the Tyré mounts twice on their five day hike. Best not to be seen.

Shivering in the breeze and preparing to zip the tent back, Joshua called for Kael instead. His brother stuck his head out of the tent still groggy.

“You see those black dots there?” Joshua asked.

“No.”

“Right there.” Joshua pointed to a lea, almost a crater in the tundra. He could swear he saw the faintest outlines of people moving around it. “We're here right? That's the Dark Element?”

“I don't know. It's too far to feel with my powers,” Kael grumbled as if he didn't believe Joshua in the first place. “Assuming we're finally there, have you worked out a way to get inside yet? You've been mum all the way up here.”

“Oh I have a plan. When do I not have a plan?” Joshua laced his hands together and brought his index fingers up to his lips. “A wonderful, festive plan.”

Joshua Rasgard was engaged in performance art. Not the pretentious, showy kind. Merely the slow, self-absorbed, self-entertaining kind. He whistled a merry little holiday tune and pulled his hand-knitted scarf tight. His work came to a stop– as did the snowball he rolled– struggling to lift and place it on top of the snowman. Little by little, his masterpiece came together, and little by little, he grew increasingly frustrated.

The mouth of a cave sat stark and inviting across the glade, on this desolate glacier. On its own, the protrusion was both obvious and suspicious, but Joshua knew the mysteries it held. Not an hour ago, Kael and he, hiding on a far-off ridge, watched dark-robed figures descend and appear from the glade. If ever there was a secret fortress for the Dark Element, this was it. A fact that Kael confirmed once he got closer; he could feel dozens of Syches in the mountain around them if he stretched out far enough.

So Joshua cursed under his breath, not at the cave of course, but the complete lack of foot traffic. It made sense that they wouldn't post a guard this far in the wilderness, but he expected a black-robed assassin to pop out at some point. The plan worked better if they could be lured out. Running blind into a dark cave seemed poor in terms of planning. Joshua's breath stung both from the cold and the prospect of it. The plan would have to be very good indeed if they were going to make it back out of this den of superpowered murders.

So Joshua rolled his snowmen for them just as much as himself. Hoping it would be a good enough plan.

“Perhaps I should have picked a warmer medium,” Joshua muttered, teeth chattering. Shrugging, he peered around the wooded glade for some suitable arms for his snowman.

As Joshua walked towards the nearest pine tree, two newcomers, similarly garbed in black robes, slid down from a higher ledge and into view. Joshua paused and watched as they angled over to the cave. His shoulder drooped and a gurgle escaped from beyond his lips. How dense could they be? He stomped around for a moment looking at the low-hanging branches until his eyes spotted two healthy specimens. He was average height and stood on his tiptoes to snag the first branch ringing the glade with a loud, crisp crack!

He found being average height the worst. There were practical applications to being short and even more for being tall. What good was it being the height everyone expected you to be?

As the last echoes hushed off the mountains, Joshua looked back to the assassins. And oh boy, were they coming. In fact, based on how close they were now, he had to imagine they started for him the second he turned his back to grab a stick. Joshua scuttled back to the snowman and hung near it as close as he could. That was key.

Trudging through the snow, the two guards cautiously looked for an ambush behind every pine tree. “Who are you?” one bellowed nearing the boy.

About time. They couldn’t see it, but under his scarf, a thin smile crossed his lips. In a mock accent Joshua began to answer, “I am how you zay, un arteest. Zis is, eh, my art ere,” the boy motioned extravagantly to the snowman. “This znow in zis very basin. Ohhhhh! It is just vat I need for–”

His blathering never found its conclusion as a burly fist plunged into his gut. He uttered one final guttural gasp and then collapsed into the snow.

###

“Why is there a random Syche in the mountain?” one guard asked the other, thoughtfully looking down at Joshua.

“Just go put him in with the others,” the first man shrugged. “New boss can decide when he arrives.” With the matter decided, the black-robed figure picked up Joshua and threw him over his shoulders. “Stay out here, look around,” he commanded. “I'll send for backup.”

He struggled with Joshua and the heavy snow, grunting all the way to the cave. But as he disappeared into the dusky grayness, the one who remained put his hands under his armpits and looked around. He was no combustion Syche and didn't appreciate the cold. What was going on? he asked himself again and again. Some smart alec brat in the mountains? Who was a Syche no less?

He flared his powers, pushed them out as far as he could. Tried to feel the distant mountain crags, tried to suss out the dangers hiding in the far-away shadows. His brain fought back against the strain, sent a fissure of pain down the center that felt like it would bisect his mind. The strain of these powers was intense at the best of times. Though his vision swam and his ears buzzed, he could feel everything in the dome of energy he had created around himself.

Wait. He didn't need to reach out at all. He could still feel it. That same energy was still here. The Syche was still here.

It was the sort of realization that happens instantaneously, instinctively. The kind of thing you need a few seconds to understand. But that extra time never came.

In a maelstrom of ice and snow, the giant bottom ball of the snowman burst open and Kael javelined out, aimed right for the man. He had him by the neck as they went down into the snow together.

###

Inside of the cave, the other man trudged along with Joshua through dimly lit, stony passages taking turns seemingly at random followed by descending some crudely hewn stairs in the black stone. Opening the next door, he stepped into a narrow corridor where a faint, electric hum hung in the air. In a chair immediately to his left sat a man in his twenties. He wore similar black clothing but nothing covered his face and stringy blond hair. The caves weren’t warm, but they were habitable.

“Open one,” Joshua's captor ordered sharply.

The prison guard nodded, flipped a switch, and the humming ceased. The man dragged Joshua through the narrow corridor. The screeching rend of twisting metal revealed an open cell. The guard heaved Joshua into the prison.

As the groan of metal sounded alongside receding footsteps, Joshua spat dirt and straw. Daring, he squinted one eye open. He was alone in a claustrophobic block. He rolled on his back and groaned, both hands caressing his abdomen. When Joshua came up with this plan to get inside, Kael had pointed out that he would end up being knocked over the head. Joshua supposed this was better, but in the moment that offered no consolation.

Coughing and groaning, Joshua sat up with clenched fists and used his feet to scoot himself against the nearest wall. The prison was dark but he was already adjusting. Actually, it was bizarre they had a literal prison. That was one element that neither Kael nor he had expected.

Across the aisle, in two separate cells sat two other people: one a dark-haired, tanned skinned girl resting against the hard stone, the other an older gentleman, huddled in the corner wrapped in a tattered blanket. The old man was dressed in skimpy rags for clothing. The girl wore the same robes that the Dark Element did.

The faint and high pitched buzzing vibrated through the cell bars once more. Somewhere down the hall, Joshua heard echoing footsteps that he took to be his captor leaving.

“Is he gone?” Joshua mouthed. The girl and the man nodded. Joshua rubbed his stomach, massaging the pain away. “Name’s Joshua Rasgard, pleased to meet you. I’ll be your hero today.”

The man in the corner hugged his blanket tighter and looked away; however, the girl gazed at him with her deep hazel eyes, almost transfixed.

“I’m Gianna, what did they get you for?” she asked, a little too enthusiastically.

Joshua chuckled at this. “They didn’t get me. I snuck in here.” The old man scowled momentarily before once again looking away. “It still counts if they helped me sneak in here. I got in, and that’s what counts.” Joshua waited for a response, but the man had given up any pretense of conversation. “Fine. You in the rags. Doctor Bartholomew, correct?”

This seemed to get the haggard man’s attention. “Is this some kind of new torture?” he moaned.

“No…?” Joshua dawdled. “No,” he said more forcefully. “Here’s the deal, we break you out of here; you answer all of our questions. And I mean all of them.” Joshua lowered his voice at the end, checking to see if the man in the chair could hear him.

“But who are you, and how did you even find me?”

Joshua sighed as his foot tapped and fingers fidgeted. “It would be horribly redundant to explain. Let's just get you out of here and you can go see your daughter.”

“My daughter is here?” The man gasped.

Joshua twitched in befuddlement as if he was that stupid, as if Kael got to make all the decisions. “We dropped her off at an orphanage in the capital. After this is all over, you can go and get her.” He paused turning back to the outside of the cell as a new pair of footsteps rang down the staircase. “And here we go.”

The door down the hall squeaked open and a newcomer dressed head to toe in the same bulky black garments slunk into the room with his eyes fixed upon their feet. In three steps he crashed into the prison guard, knocking him down and sending him off on a tirade.

“I’m so sorry. I'm so sorry,” the new voice said timidly. “I’ll be more careful next time.” There were some more sounds of clutter as the footsteps began again. In dark robes, veiled and shadowed, the new person walked by with a shiny object between thier index and middle finger. With a flick of the wrist, the object sailed through the vibrating bars and into the cell. And then the newcomer was gone.

Picking up the small iron key at his feet, Joshua turned to his captive audience with a grin. “And this–" he paused for dramatic effect– "is how we get out." Nothing but self-satisfaction in his voice.

“And just what does that go to?” Gianna asked with a hint of smugness in her voice.

Joshua double taked at Gianna's seemingly roulette wheel of expressions before carrying on. “The cell door, obviously.” Joshua rolled his eyes.

“What door?” Bartholomew asked.

Joshua stared at the solid bars transfixed looking up and down for a keyhole, a padlock, anything; it was solid metal from bottom to top. His smile transformed into a look of pure bewilderment in an instant. “Then what does this key go to!?” Joshua yelled loud enough to startle everyone on the floor. Not waiting for an answer, Joshua yelled down the hallway, “Kael! Get back here! The key does not open the cell! I repeat! I cannot open the cell! Code red!”

At the other end of the hallway, the guy who had thrown the key stopped and took a deep breath, his teeth grinding against each other. He turned his head in time to see the prison guard sprinting at him.

“Are you kidding me, Josh?” Kael shouted back as he took off running, disappearing around the corner.

As the guard rounded the corner in pursuit, a bright light and loud crack split the air. A body crashed against the wall and crumpled over. Kael walked over to the downed guard and lightly stamped on his chest, squelching a few stray cinders that still burned. He strode up to the bars and glared at Joshua. “You idiot, there is no room to dodge in this corridor. He could have killed me.”

“Well you had to go and give me a key that doesn’t work,” Joshua shot back. “Learn to take responsibility for your own mistakes.”

“You didn’t realize it either until I told you,” the girl behind Joshua noted sadly. Her speech always off with what she was saying.

“You can shut it!” Joshua spat back.

“Whatever you say, hero,” the girl answered, sounding oddly genuine.

Joshua glared at her for a second unable to decide whether she was mocking him or genuinely nuts. The tone of her voice was strange. Almost replying to find out if it was a joke at his expense, he instead turned back to Kael. “It’s electrified so you can go ahead and shut that lever off over there,” Joshua said.

The electrification was smart. Other sources of energy interfered with Sychakenetic powers. A Metal Syche couldn't bend the bars with the voltage coursing through the beams, a Combustion Syche couldn't blow it up. It was the same principle that stopped Syches from affecting humans directly, their life force interfering with the powers.

Without speaking, Kael looked back to Joshua and nodded. Joshua’s eyebrow raised in turn. Kael’s head bobbled from side to side to a second before holding up five fingers which prompted Joshua to nod once again. And that’s all it took for the plan to once again take motion. Kael walked to where the guard previously sat and threw the lever, and the dreadful humming ceased. His job done, Kael turned heel and walked down the hallway and around the corner.

Bartholomew stood up now and clasped his hands together. “I take it you two have a plan?”

“Yup, we have five minutes to get out of this cell. After that, we’ll have a tiny opening to make it back outside before getting caught. Kael is going to make a distraction– I think,” Joshua finished, taking a large breath.

“And how do we get out of this cell?” the Doctor asked, his hand motioning to the solid bars.

Joshua opened his mouth wordlessly and then paused in thought. Just then, a responding crash shook the walls and their teeth. Joshua looked over to Gianna's cell. The metal bars that were still there were twisted and warped with a giant hole punched through the center. “Combustion Syche?” Joshua asked Gianna excitedly. She nodded as he scooted to the back of his cell, closed his eyes, and clapped his hands over his ears. Two tremors later, he turned around to find himself and the Doctor free.

“So you didn’t plan for this?” the Doctor asked, standing back as his cell melted in a bright neon haze. “If it was just you and I here, we’d be stuck?”

“There's always a kink in the plan,” Joshua replied. “It happens. Wait until you hear the story of how we found your daughter.”

As the three escapees turned to the stairs, a voice from behind halted them. “Hold on,” the prison guard's haggard voice scratched.

Gianna swung in front of Joshua and Bartholomew, her palms opened towards the guard.

The man held up his hands in surrender. “Take me with you. I can’t be here if you escape.”

Joshua placed a hand on Gianna’s wrist, lowering her arm. “Name’s Joshua. Happy to save whoever I can.” He casually strode forward and offered the prison guard a hand up.

“Joseph,” the guard said, grabbing Joshua’s hand and steadying himself to his feet. He grimaced, standing as straight as he could.

The party of four made their way to the stairs and began to climb with Gianna leading. Bartholomew looked back on Joseph with a slight snarl. Joshua couldn't blame the man, but he also couldn't leave someone behind that needed his help. That hero line before wasn't a joke, it was decidedly the core of who he was. He needed this.

Up the flight of stairs, Gianna explained how she had ended up in a cell. She had attempted to escape from this organization. To find a boat. To get off this island.

Joshua said, “So you made it that close before they caught you?”

“Barovitche is the closest city to this base here. And there’s always boats there,” Gianna said. “Just not when my group made a break for it. The Dark Element caught us within an hour of arriving in the city, and then I got thrown in prison. The other three dead.”

Bartholomew looked to Joseph who gave him a dismissive shrug.

“Going to be an example no doubt,” she continued. A faint shudder ran down her body. “What if they had done something to my elbows?” Her body quaked at the thought.

At the top of the stairs, they arrived at a long dark hallway and moved to a corner. One by one, they flattened their backs against the cold stone wall in a line, waiting for a group of darkly dressed shadows to move by. They were loud, talking among themselves in a clatter. If anyone one of them used their powers, Joshua and his group would be found out instantly. It wasn't like using one's other senses though, it took active concentration and intent.

Joshua nearly jumped when he felt the slight rap, rap of Bartholomew tapping his shoulder.

“Smoke?” Bartholomew hissed, his brows furrowed. Sure enough, a thin black smoke was creeping up the staircase from the depths below.

“Kael needed to do something to distract them and setting stuff on fire is always a valid choice,” Joshua responded.

“It's true,” Gianna added, quite emphatically. Joshua pointed to her in affirmation.

Wordlessly, they continued through the maze under Gianna’s instructions– pointing this way or that.

Sprinting footsteps sounded suddenly and Joshua's gut sank as he turned into a room, pulling everyone in. There wasn't time to close the door, and Joshua didn't let his breath go until the next group ran by. He exhaled. They were dead if the Dark Element did find them. Maybe Gianna or Jacob could help– maybe.

By now, the smoke had become thick on the ceiling, the sheer volume of it oppressive. All around, shouts rang through the stony fortress as it descended into chaos.

Joshua stood at yet another door with his ear listening to the clamor and couldn't help but smile. Bartholomew looked at him as calm as he had always been. Gianna was. . . it was one of those moments where it was entirely unclear what she was thinking. Joseph looked appropriately worried.

“Boy,” Bartholomew said to Joshua, “you are enjoying this too much.”

Joshua would enjoy the story in a week; right now it was terrifying. “They've all moved to the lower levels,” Joshua retorted. “You'll have to excuse my excitement at getting to live.”

“Yup,” Gianna said, “we are close to the exit now anyway. It’s straight ahead and to the right.”

“No it’s to the left and up one more flight of stairs,” Joshua said. Gianna looked like someone feigning shock. Joshua could see that Bartholomew was about to support her so he pressed forward: “I was paying attention when they brought me in. It’s not like I knew someone from this place would be guiding us, or that said person who literally lived here wouldn’t know their way around.” He stared at Gianna as these last few words left his mouth. Joshua couldn’t even be sure that she was angry, a slew of emotions crossed her face in a fraction of a second and he had to admit that there was no reading this girl.

“The boy is right,” Joseph chimed in, and this seemed to satisfy Bartholomew.

Sliding the door back open, they stayed low and slunk to the upper level of the labyrinth. Following the thinning smoke, the group burst out into the bright white light of day, cringing in pain momentarily.

Before they could even see again, the scream of a man met their ears. The man who had captured and beat Joshua was out by the trees dragging his fellow assassin, stark naked, back to the base. He dropped his fellow and sprinted towards them.

“Hey Gianna, sic ‘em,” Joshua said, pointing to the sentry. She took a step forward and raised a foot bringing it down on Joshua’s foot, hard. “Ow. Sorry. Sheesh.”

Bartholomew snapped his attention to Joseph who was still clasping his smoldering chest in pain. “If you don’t mind,” interrupted Bartholomew, “one of you will need to do something, quickly!”

“The guy without powers has got it,” Joshua said, stepping forward. “Probably.”

As the sentry bore down on them, a black chain of metal whipped out of his sleeve like a snake, controlled by the Metal Sychakenetic energy that ran through it. It was a threat Joshua couldn't meet head on. He had to bluff.

Joshua reached behind as if to draw a firearm and the attacker skidded to a stop. The links of his chain flattened and spread out into a tall shield that screened the man from view. Joshua crashed foot first into the makeshift shield and threw himself over it.

“Sike!” Joshua yelled, bringing the heel of his foot down onto the man's face. The man buckled and fell limp.

As if he would ever use a gun; those killed people. Joshua cleared his throat and prepared to cap the heist off with a clever one liner he had prepared that morning. Instead, a dark shape ripped across his vision. It grazed his head and knocked him off his feet. Joshua fought against the haze for a second before his body lapsed into unconsciousness in the thick snow.